Although we may think of generative AI for providing answers to questions, it can do a lot more, including tasks related to taxonomies.
Category: Taxonomy creation
Related Concepts in Taxonomies
Taxonomies and thesauri are characterized by having hierarchical relationships linking their terms. The associative relationship (related concepts, Related Term, or RT), on the other hand, is a fundamental feature of thesauri, but it is merely an optional feature of taxonomies. An over-simplistic distinction between taxonomies and thesauri is the presence…
Defining a Taxonomy’s Scope
In planning a taxonomy, I have often said that it is important to define the taxonomy’s scope, specifically the subject area scope of the taxonomy’s terms, but without going into more detail. Recently I was asked by a client how to define a taxonomy’s scope. This is a good question.…
Taxonomy Design Research
I recently wrote an article “Taxonomies: Connecting Users to Content” for an online publication, Boxes and Arrows, on information architecture (IA) and user experience (UX). As I was working with the editors on the section of gathering information from users, I realized that IA and UX have very formalized researcher…
Who Should Create Taxonomies?
More and more organizations of various types and sizes are recognizing the benefits of information/content taxonomies, to make it easier to more accurately and quickly find information, be recommended information, and be able to formulate complex queries of data. In many cases, however, where taxonomies are not central to the…
Classification Systems vs. Taxonomies
The design of modern taxonomies tends to involve more lumping, whereas the design of classification systems has involved more splitting
Knowledge Modeling
I recently presented a webinar on “knowledge modeling.” I usually have spoken or written only of creating controlled vocabularies, or more specifically taxonomies, rather than creating knowledge models. Now, I am beginning to think of knowledge models and knowledge modeling. A knowledge model is not just a fancy buzzword for…
Taxonomy Building Steps
What are the steps to take when building a taxonomy? This question was posted not long ago to a discussion group of which I am member. I referred the person asking to view slides of one of my past presentations, “Everything You Need to Know to Start a Taxonomy from…
Taxonomy Hierarchy Levels
A taxonomy comprises a hierarchy of concepts (terms), and those hierarchies can be considered to be in different levels. In actuality, levels are somewhat artificial, and its important not to think of levels too strictly. In some taxonomies the levels are even named (for example: Domain, Category, Subcategory, Topic), but…
Engaging Others in Taxonomy Building
Whether you are building a new taxonomy from scratch or redesigning one based on an existing taxonomy, it’s important to engage other people in the process. There are two primary reasons: getting input from those who will use the taxonomy, so that it will better suit their needs getting buy-in…